The American Philosophical Association (APA) has announced the winners of 16 of its prizes.
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Below are the prizes and their winners.
2024 AI2050 Prizes ($10,000 each. Awarded in recognition of outstanding philosophical scholarship relating to artificial intelligence):
- Early Career Researcher: Brian Hedden (Australian National University), “On Statistical Criteria of Algorithmic Fairness,” Philosophy & Public Affairs (2021)
- Established Researcher: Deborah Hellman (University of Virginia), “Measuring Algorithmic Fairness,” Virginia Law Review (June 1, 2020)
2024 APA/PDC Prize for Excellence and Innovation in Philosophy Programs ($3000 worth of electronic philosophy resources from the Philosophy Documentation Center; plaque. Recognizes philosophy departments, research centers, institutes, societies, publishers, and other organizations for creating programs that risk undertaking new initiatives in philosophy and do so with excellence and success):
- The Gould Center for Humanistic Studies (Claremont McKenna College)
2024 Article Prize ($2000. For the best, published article by a younger scholar in the previous two years):
- Lindsay Brainard (University of Alabama at Birmingham), “The Curious Case of Uncurious Creation,” Inquiry (2023)
2025 Fred Berger Memorial Prize ($500 and APA symposium on topic. Awarded to an outstanding published article in philosophy of law by an APA member):
- Wendy Salkin (Stanford University), “Speaking for Others from the Bench,” Legal Theory 29, no. 2 (2023): 151–84
2024 David W. Concepción Prize for Excellence in Philosophy Teaching ($1500; plaque. Recognizes a philosophy teacher who has had a profound impact on the student learning of philosophy in undergraduate and/or pre-college settings):
- Brynn Welch (University of Alabama at Birmingham) and Melissa Jacquart (University of Cincinnati)
2025 John Dewey Lectures ($1000. Three annual lectures, one at each divisional meeting of the APA, given by a prominent and senior (typically retired) philosopher associated with that Division, who is invited to reflect broadly and in an autobiographical spirit on philosophy in America as seen from the perspective of a personal intellectual journey):
- Eastern: Naomi Scheman (University of Minnesota)
- Central: Robert Pippin (University of Chicago)
- Pacific: Cheshire Calhoun (Arizona State University)
2024 Essay Prize in Latin American Thought ($500. Awarded to the author of the best unpublished, English-language, philosophical essay in Latin American thought. The winning essay will be published in APA Studies on Hispanic/Latino Issues in Philosophy):
- Stefan Terrazas (The Pennsylvania State University), “Ginés de Sepúlveda: Christian Empire, Virtue, and the Argument of Natural Servitude Among Indigenous Americans”
2024 Joseph B. Gittler Award ($4000. Given for an outstanding scholarly contribution in the field of the philosophy of one or more of the social sciences):
- Sara Protasi (University of Puget Sound), The Philosophy of Envy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021)
2025 William James Prize ($300. For the best paper in the area of American philosophy that is both (a) written by a philosopher who received their PhD within five years of the beginning of the calendar year in which the paper is submitted, or is a graduate student, and (b) accepted for inclusion in the Eastern Division program by the program committee through the normal process of anonymous-reviewing.):
- Caroline Wall (Boston University), “Emersonian Moral Perfectionism as a Method of Ethics”
2024 Public Philosophy Op-Ed Contest ($100 each. Winning submissions will call public attention, either directly or indirectly, to the value of philosophical thinking. The pieces will be judged in terms of their success as examples of public philosophy, and should be accessible to the general public, focused on important topics of public concern, and characterized by sound reasoning):
- Eddy Keming Chen (University of California, San Diego) for “The Preordained Quantum Universe,” Nature (21/28 December 2023)
- Kaitlyn Creasy (California State University, San Bernardino) for “Loved, Yet Lonely,” Aeon (November 9, 2023)
- Iskra Fileva (University of Colorado Boulder) for “Is It Hubris to Think We Matter?” Blog of the American Philosophical Association (September 19, 2023)
- Paul Schofield (Bates College) for “Being Homeless Means Not Being Free – as Americans Are Supposed to Be,” The Conversation (November 20, 2023)
2024 Philip L. Quinn Prize ($2500; plaque. Awarded in recognition of service to philosophy and philosophers, broadly construed):
- Sally Haslanger (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
2026 Patrick Romanell Lecture ($1200; travel stipend. Presented annually at a divisional meeting of the APA on the topic of philosophical naturalism):
- Jennifer Nagel (University of Toronto)
2024 Routledge, Taylor & Francis Prize ($1000 each. Awarded for the two best published articles in philosophy written by adjunct professors):
- Mich Ciurria (University of Missouri–Saint Louis), “Responsibility’s Double-Binds: The Reactive Attitudes in Conditions of Oppression,” Journal of Applied Philosophy (2023)
- Milena Ivanova (University of Cambridge), “What Is a Beautiful Experiment?” Erkenntnis (2023)
2025 Josiah Royce Lectureship ($4000 now, $3000 after submission of book manuscript. Three lectures, to be delivered at Brown University, with expectation of book based on the lectures):
- Peter Godfrey-Smith (University of Sydney)
2025 Sanders Graduate Student Awards ($1000 each. Awarded to each of the three best papers in mind, metaphysics, epistemology, or ethics submitted for the annual APA Eastern Division meeting by graduate students, as chosen by the Eastern Division program committee):
- Pol Pardini Gispert (Boston University) for “Is Incoherence Within the Epistemic Normative Domain Undesirable?”
- Philip Groth (University of California, Santa Cruz) for “Perception, Belief, and the Laws of Appearance”
- James Murphy (Indiana University) for “Objectification as a Vice”
2025 Sanders Lecture ($3500; travel stipend. Presented annually at a divisional meeting of the APA on a topic in philosophy of mind, metaphysics, or epistemology that engages the analytic tradition):
- Kit Fine (New York University)
You can learn more about the APA prizes here.
Does anyone know who makes up the selection committee for the Berger Prize these days? I ask because, for most of its existence, the prize was administered by the APA Committee on Law and Philosophy, but that committee was eliminated several years back. I was the out-going chair of the committee at the time the plan to eliminate it was announced, and one of my concerns was the administration of the prize. I was told that the APA excecutive thought they’d have no trouble administrating the prize (despite not having any experts on law and philosophy on the board at the time.) Salkin’s paper is a strong one, and I have no complaints at all with it being picked, but I am curious as to who the selection committee was (and will be.) (I couldn’t find any information on it on the prize page itself.)
The Lectures, Publications and Research Committee is officially responsible. What that means in practice these days (given how many prizes there are nowadays for a committee of roughly 15 to cover) is a chair from the LPR membership supplemented by members who may and usually do come from beyond the membership of the LPR and generally chosen for area expertise (in this case Phil law). Picking the extra members is generally done in consultation between the LPR Committee chair (me at the moment) and Devin Brymer, the APA’s Program Assistant for Governance & Awards. This is relatively standard for most prize committees now, given that there are more prizes than there used to be and given that there is often a good bit of reading to do to award a given prize.
Thanks for the reply, Mark. I appreciate it.